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Saturday, March 31, 2012

I made a quick card for Play Date Cafe's Challenge 125...to make a card using Black and white with a splash of brown. These were tough colors for me to think about putting together, but I thought of a silhouetted wheat stamp(Inkadinkado, Meadow) I have, and this is what I made:

I stamped in black and then took my Vintage Photo Distress Stickles and covered the tops with it...rubbing it around a bit. Up close, you can see the brown a bit better than the photo...

Layered on a piece of chipboard and added Hero Arts sentiment in black, as well. The card measures
4" x 8"...perfect for a business sized envelope.

Have some other ideas running around in my head...will see if I can get to another card for this challenge before Tuesday night:)!! Great fun!! Thanks for visiting me today!!
Hugs!! Lisa

I am officially celebrating my first year of blogging, today!! It has been an amazing year!! I have learned SO much...first, about the computer...I now sometimes know more than my children:)!! I have met some WONDERFUL ladies from around the world and have so enjoyed being a part of a worldwide community of stamping artists!! I have not only learned so much about computers, but more importantly, about the artistry, techniques, and creativity that encompasses the art of card making as well as about life and the lives of others!!! I now have, at this writing, an amazing181 sweet and wonderful followers who not only encourage me by their simply being a part of my blog, but many leave comments, shoot me emails and make me feel so incredibly loved and my work so appreciated...you will never know how much it ALL means to me!!!!
I have gathered together a few of MY favorite things...no, no raindrops on roses or crisp apple struedel:)!!...I just thought of a few things that I love to use and are staples of my stamping, and wanted YOU to have a chance to have them, if you don't already:)!!
I am offering 2 sets of "goodies"::

I love my Enamel Accents, have just discovered the wonder of the white Color Box, love, love, love sentiments so added some new ones I found from Inkadinkado, and LOVE Papertrey, so a little stamp set and my most favorite tool of alllllllll time, the impression plate!! It adds a subtle but wonderful texture to ALL cards...I LOVE it to pieces, and wanted to share my love of it with you!! I was fortunate enough to snag a couple before they became unavailable....AGAIN!!(No wonder why to ME:)!!!)
Leave a comment, and I'll computer pick 2 winners. I am going to leave the commenting open for a few days, until midnight April 2nd, and will let you know if you won on April 3rd:)!! You can enter, no matter where you live!! One comment per person, though!
Love you ladies...thanks for loving me:)!! Hugs!! Lisa

Friday, March 30, 2012

I was playing around with Papertrey Ink's Lovely Leaves...I had pretty much settled on a layout that seemed to "work" for the leaves, but decided to switch up the colors (outlines, leaves, berries) and make some cards with some different "looks and feels". I'm starting with the last one...I had a perfect sentiment for the layout and thought a rainbow look would be fun:

I masked the other leaves with scotch tape while I stamped each color, and after having all the colors stamped, dotted with black Enamel Accents. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Up Up and Away sentiments. The colors I used: Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Lucky Limeade, Marina Mist.

This was the first one I made...certainly celery and dotted with Buttercup Liquid Pearls. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Same thing, but dotted with pink Perfect Pearls.

This one I made the stem of leaves into a tree and added a ribbon.

I tried a darker green, Old Olive, and colored the berries with Pumpkin Pie and dotted with Glossy Accents. The sentiment is Papertrey Ink

This one I used Going Gray and dotted with Buttercup Perfect Pearls

This one is gray dotte with Peacock Perfect Pearls...like the blue with the gray! The sentiment is Papertrey Ink Script Sentiments.

This last one is not one layer....I was trying my hand at extending the stem on a scrap card and liked it so much I decided to use it...so cut it down a bit and put it on a card. Stamped in Basic Gray and stamped leaves in Marina Mist. Dotted the leaves with black Enamel Accents. The sentiment is from Mega Mixed Messages from Papertrey Ink...don't get to use this sentiment too often, but will be sending it to the hostess of the baby shower I went to last week...I spent most of the shower talking to her, we had the most wonderful time:)!!!!!
Thanks for visiting me today!!
Hugs!! Lisa

Thursday, March 29, 2012

I finally made a card for Runway Inspired Challenge! I had tried a number of things(lots of flowers) ...and then, I had this thought as I was falling asleep last night...here's my card and the runway model/dress:

I wanted to make a card with the black/cream of the top of the dress and model...so I chose a cream colored card, stamped with versamark and clear embossed the tree, trunk, ground(cut a piece of paper and masked over card) and sentiment (Paper Smooches), then took my soot distress ink and covered the card with black...the clear cream images showed through! I then stamped with versamark in the different colors of the dress, the circles that accompany the tree(Papertrey Ink Father Knows Best). I clear embossed, cut out, and randomly attached to tree. Thought this challenge might get by me, didn't want to wait until tomorrow, but...had to tutor, get my hair cut and take my son to the dentist today, but still managed to eek in a card:)!! Ain't life fun???!!!!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The challenge this week at Less is More is to make a card using any three(3) of the past challenges in making your card. Then, you must list the challenges that your card represents. I had this flower stamp on my desk for weeks, and it got lost, then found on it's way back to the closet, so I thought I'd ink it up...

I think this was a fun challenge...hey, I found you can pretty much just make a card and FIND 3 challenges that will fit...a challenge that's easy to be a part of!! AND, if you don't feel creative, go look at all the challenges listed on the top of the home page, and FIND 3 that sound like fun and make a card...I'm just saying...having fun no matter how you FIND it:)!! Thanks, ladies, for another great challenge:)!!
Thanks for visiting me today!!
Hugs!! Lisa

Monday, March 26, 2012

I was really stumped with the Play Date Cafe's colors this week, but came up with a simple card for the challenge...here's my card and the colors:

I used a set by Papertrey Ink set(Rosie Posie), stamped and cut out...YES, I cut around the daisy!! Could be why there's nothing else on my card...I thought THAT was enough effort for one card...lol!!!! What can I say, I LOVE using scissors!!! I used a stamp from Paper Smooches for the sentiment and layered on Marina Mist card. Used Melon Mambo(thought later that I should have used Rich Razzleberry...but the Melon Mambo IS a raspberry color??!!) for the flower and More mustard for the middle circle.

Hope you check out the challenge...what is especially cool is that the challenge this week is sponsored by a 13 year old business"young "man!!! How amazing is that, that a 13 year old would have his own stamp company...Tanner, you are an inspiration...your tenacity makes me smile...don't know what better way to put it, but you are one AMAZING young man!!!!!

I have seen some beautiful cards done with this Papertrey Ink Harvest Berries leaves stamp in black, and decided to give it a go, myself. This card is VERY simple in it's design, but I thought it was so cool to stamp it in an over-the-edge design. I stamped the Hero Arts sentiment (Good Friends) and then clear embossed. Used my Papertrey Ink texture/impression plate(Linen/Canvas) to add texture to the Bashful Blue panel and popped up on white bazzill card.
OK...how do you do this??? I used a standard card and a piece of blue cardstock cut to standard card size. I placed my stamp on gridded block and using the grids, lined the stamp against the top/left side and bottom/right side corners of the card in the EXACT same place on the white card AND on the blue piece of cardstock, separately stamping the stamp on the white top, then the blue top...then lining up the bottom and stamping the white bottom, then the blue bottom. I took the blue piece of cardstock and cut 1/2" off of each side and layered on black. I just think the effect is so cool....
Another fun challenge!!

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays this week is to make a clean and simple card using Pastels and Black. I know we just had a week of baby making cards a few weeks back, but I gave that card away to my daughter to give away(and it was pink, anyhow), and had a shower to go to yesterday...although this is another version of the one I gave the mother-to-be(she's having a boy, so I made the giraffe blue....how come girls cards can have blue, but boys cards look funny with pink???...I'm just saying:)!!).

I got the idea from a baby card I saw at Target...it's fun to look at cool cards and get ideas...Target has some very cool cards! The card showed some cute animals stacked on top of one another. These are the only animals I have, so I stamped on die cut outs, layered on chipboard for depth and layered on white panel. They each have a heart on their behinds, so I stamped the heart from the same stamp set on white cardstock, clear embossed and colored with color of animal. I cut out the hearts, and dotted with Glossy Accents, dried and attached over the white heart spot on their butts with another dot of Glossy Accents.

The colors I used were Apricot Appeal, Bashful Blue and Pretty in Pink. The Stamps and dies are Papertrey Ink Sweet Baby, the sentiment Papertrey, as well, Script Sentiments. The card measures 4" x 7"... fits a business sized envelope beautifully:)!!

Friday, March 23, 2012

I will be celebrating my first year of blogging in another week, on March 31st!! It had been an incredible time...learning how to blog, making great new blog friends and having, at this writing, 174 wonderful followers taking the journey with me!!!! Wow...it has all been soooooooo cool!! I have never done or won "blog candy", but wanted to show my appreciation for my blogging buddies by giving away some stamping stuff! I will have my BLOGOVERSARY post up on March 31 at 12:01 am with the prizes and will keep it open until 11:59pm that day for comments. I will randomly pick a winner or winners after that day. I will let you know, then, what I will have for candy...I'm thinking it will be some of MY favorite things:)!! Make sure to check back for the deets then:)!!
Thanks for visiting me today!!
Hugs!! Lisa

I saw the sketch at Splitcoaststampers , and decided to have a go at it:)!! Here's my card and the sketch:

I loved the lines of this sketch and wanted to do the challenge to prove to myself that I could take a sketch that "looked" like a lot of layers and make one with very few!! I stamped and embossed the black panel with a background stamp from Hero Arts and then used a Spellbinders oval die to cut out the middle. I cut 2 panels out of a bazzill bright pink colored paper, and attached them to the black panel. I then cut the middles out of the pink panels to show the white of the card, stamped, added ribbon and button brads(yes, I am doing my part to bring back brads...after all...I have SO MANY OF THEM!!!). I punched the flowers and added black stick on dots. Popped up pink panel on card.
Thanks for visiting me today!!
Hugs!! Lisa

The other day I received an email from Darnell Knauss who nominated me for the Liebster Award!!

Her site with the information can be found HERE...but here is the scoop in a nut shell:

This award is given to up-and-coming bloggers who inspire you and have less than 200 followers. The Liebster Award takes its name from the German word meaning "Beloved, Dearest, or Favorite." As part of the tradition, you then pass the award on to five bloggers that have motivated and inspired you.

The new honorees are now asked to do the following:

Acknowledge the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

Give this award to 5 other bloggers, who must have less than 200 followers, and let them know through a comment on their blog.

Post the award on your blog

Best of all: Bask in the glory, have fun, and SHARE THE LOVE!

I am so honored, thank you so much, Darnell...you have made me feel loved. My grandpa, who came here to America from Germany in the early 1900's, used to call me his 'liebling'... which means darling, love, sweetie...the list is super long, but holds every wonderful word for a granddaughter, or person...so I am familiar with this word, and think this Liebster Blog Award is wonderful!!

I happily pass this award on to 5 more fellow bloggers. For my five choices, I went with one of my favorite challenge blogs, Simply Less is More, whose stamping community encompasses a larger global base of entries than I've ever seen, and chose 5 ladies whose Clean and Simple artistry has been not only beautiful, but inspirational to me...

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Last night I took a quick glance at Pinterest...oh my...I can't do it very often...it's so addictive and can be so time consuming, but it IS so much fun!! Well, I saw this picture and just couldn't resist my attempt to make a card based on it:

Here's what I came up with:

I used a Memory Box die for the branch and a sizzix die for the flower. The vase is a Papertrey Ink stamp from Iconic Images. I stamped the vase and cut it out, then embossed in white, and then again using versamark, stamped a lined Hero Arts background and then embossed with white OVER the already embossed pitcher. The sentiment is Hero Arts(Everyday Sayings) and dotted the flowers with pink liquid pearls.

I decided to use the layout of the sketch from Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple's challenge this week and will enter it into that challenge.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

This is a card using the very FIRST flowers I die cut a couple days ago, with my Memory Box die...A Muse's Bubblegum Pink cardstock...thought the color would look "cool" against black...then put a background on the black:

No petals in these ones, unlike the flowers a couple days ago, but used another sentiment from the Fillable Frames #1 set like the other AND Doodlebug chunky brads, as well. The background is Hero Arts Grid Pattern.
This is what I did with the leftover petals:

Layered the petals for depth...there were LOTS of petals, after all...dotted the petals and added hand drawn stem stamped with petals from Papetrey Ink Beautiful Blooms and sentiment from Signature Greetings...dotted with pink rhinestone....super simplistic...but I kinda like it...and it's recycled, so it's eco friendly:)!!
Thanks for visiting me today!!
Hugs!! Lisa

Monday, March 19, 2012

The challenge this week at Less is Moreis to make a card using the masking technique. I don't do much masking...in fact almost none, so I went with something super simple:

I used three different sets from Papertrey Ink...the frame is from Framed, the branch/leaves/flowers from Out On a Limb and the sentiment from Daily Designs Sentiments. I stamped the frame and masked part of the bottom opening to make it larger for the sentiment. After stamping the frame, I put post it notes on the left side of the frame and stamped the branch twice with different lengths and the flowers. I then stamped the leaves, and then the sentiment and embossed that. The frame, branch and sentiment were stamped in Early Espresso , the flowers in Pretty in Pink and the leaves in Certanly Celery. I dotted the flowers with pink Perfect Pearls. Loving these challenges...always keeping me on my toes and making me think:)!!!
Thanks for visiting me today!!
Hugs!! Lisa

Sunday, March 18, 2012

I love Memory Box dies! I got one out after church, this morning, and decided to experiment with a thought I had last night ...funny how thoughts change as you create:)...

I used this die from Memory Box:

I die cut the flower in black a total of 12 times(layered 4 on each flower for depth...mine was cheap paper, if you use good cardstock, you could probably get away with 2 or 3 layers) and cut one more flower in each of the colors from Papertrey Ink polka dotted paper(the middles are all you use from the colored flowers). What's cool is that with the pink and the the whole petals on the other 2 flowers, they just kind of "snap" into place between the layers of black. The only adhesive needed for the petals was just for the cut petals, and I used rolled up sticky dots for those. Yes, it was a lot of gluing...I used a glue stick to paste all the black flowers together...but I like it! The brads are Chunky brads from Doodlebug, the sentiment from Papertrey Ink Fillable Frames #1. I originally thought I would do yellow daisies with the black, but saw this paper, and thought the colors looked like so much more fun!!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

The challenge this week at CAS-ual Friday's is to make a card with: 1. A Pattern 2. An Image 3. A Sentiment ...

I couldn't resist using a new set I got with my Birthday money, made by W Plus 9 Design Studio:

I stamped the sun with So Saffron, using some old Stampin Up paper with So saffron color in it. The top line of the sentiment is 2 separate W Plus 9 sentiments from set and the "sunshine" is part of a sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Up Up and Away sentiments mini set. This was a fun challenge...had to think of how to combine all three criteria and keep it simple...hope I get to make another before Wednesday:)!!

Thanks to the DT at CAS-ual Fridays for the honor of having my card chosen as a VIP...I'm so very HAPPY(like my card:)!!)!!!!

Friday, March 16, 2012

OK...first, I'd like to thank the DT at Play Date Cafe for choosing my daisy card, last week for the Cup of the Week...what an honor!! It was such an encouragement to my heart, as inspiration and color challenges have been challenges I have run from, in the past, but now, not only am I DRAWN to color and inspiration and having such fun, but am recognized for it, as well....how incredibly cool is that???!!! Thank you so much, ladies!! Congratulations to all the winners of this challenge, as well:)!!!! On to this week's challenge at Play Date Cafe!! Oh my, when I saw the patterns...and with the colors...well...I had DEFINITE ideas!!! I have 2, so will be putting the other in a separate post for the challenge. Here's the colors and then my card...

I could not resist the chevrons!! And Susan Goetter made a beautiful card with chevrons she made from a video on Jennifer McGuire's blog...you can find that video HERE . What a fun project, pretty simple. The sentiment is Papertrey Ink (Birthday Basics).

Thursday, March 15, 2012

It has been a long while since I joined a Case Study Challenge, but happened upon the blog this morning, and decided, with the clean and simple beauty of Laura Bassen's work and especially today's inspiration card, I just could not resist!! I JUST YESTERDAY got my much awaited dies from W Plus 9 Studio...so this challenge was an absolute must for me:)!!
Here's Lauren's card:

And HERE'S MY CARD:

I used 4 scrap color papers in dark red, orange mustard and olive. The die cut roofs and branch (I cut by hand with scissors) are made with scraps of bazzill java(very dark brown). The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink (Daily Designs Sentiments). I think these houses and birds are just tooooooo adorable..so glad I found just the perfect challenge to first use them:)!!

It was hard to photograph, but I used my Papertrey Ink woodgrain texture plate to give some added dimension to the branch...but IRL, it looks cool!

When I saw the challenge at Runway Inspired Challenge this week, there were a few things that were musts for the card I would make. Here's the runway photo:

I knew I HAD to make one or more tri-leveled, tri-colored flowers with blue, pink and red, the background HAD to be black, and it HAD to have some bright pink on the card! This is what I finally came up with:

I used a Hero Arts stamp set(Dotted Flowers) and Papertrey Ink letter dies. The pink and blue and red are colors pulled from the model's dress, the pink and blue papers are A Muse, the black bazzill. I layered the flower on the black die cut panel with the bright pink behind the die cut outs, and layered THAT panel on a black card. I know I have a "different" way of sometimes looking at things...at life, but when I said I HAD to have pink in the card, I was going for the model's bright pink stockings...and thought it was so funny that when I got done and saw the two "l's" in "hello"...I decided they were the pink legs of the model:):)...I'm so funny, right??!! Well, I'M laughing:)!!!!
Thanks so very much to the DT at Runway Inspired Challenge for the honor of choosing my card to be a Fabulous Fasionista in the last challenge...I am truly honored!! I am having such fun!!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Used a die from Papertrey Ink(Movers and Shakers: Poppers Dies Collection) and some dotted bazzill paper behind the letters. The sentiment is part of a larger sentiment from Hero Arts(Truly Appreciated). Another fun challenge:)!!
Thanks for visiting me today!!
Hugs!! Lisa